Aluminum Anodizing

Okay, I work at an aluminum shop where I live where we make aluminum telescope pieces. My boss did a lot of research on Anodizing and has his own set up for anodizing aluminum. He offers 7 different colors : Black, Red, Gold, Yellow, Green, Violet, Blue. I actually was going to wait to post anything of this until I purchased an aluminum part off of 3sx and showed you guys of how nice his anodizing actually turns out. I haven't talked to my boss about this yet, but he gets orders in from people who want parts anodized except he gets orders of like 25-400 parts at a time. It all depends on what people want anodized.

But I believe for the most part people do order things from 3sx, and i know they offer a few parts that are aluminum and I would be able to anodize them. Parts such as:

http://www.3sx.com/store/catalog/dash-vents-aluminum-3sx-beadblast-02-600l.jpg

http://www.3sx.com/store/catalog/shifter-trim-ring-alum-3s-03-275l.jpg

http://www.3sx.com/store/catalog/pedal-covers-alum-vr4-01-300.jpg

http://www.3sx.com/store/catalog/door-trim-alum-lower-panels-01-600l.jpg

http://www.3sx.com/store/catalog/pulley-crank-3sx-07-silver-250.jpg

http://www.3sx.com/store/catalog/strutbar-cianci-front-02-600l.jpg


Thats just a few i was going through and would think look really good being anodized. Now, before i talk to my boss i figured I would try to figure out how many 3000gt/stealth owners I would be able to make happy by doing this because im sure he wont do it if he just gets a couple orders in.. but if there are a massive amount of parts that people would want anodized then I think I might be able to pull something off. The only thing about this, im sure I am going to be the one who will have to give up my saturday to come in and do it, once he teaches me how.. but I would do that to make all of you guys happy plus I would earn a little bit of extra cash. This also goes for any aluminum parts.. not just ones ordered from 3sx. Also I was wondering to myself if we would be able to somehow help 3sx out and have them send us all of their aluminum parts so they would be able to sell them through 3sx all the 7 colors that we offer. But I was just wondering how many people would actually be interested in parts being anodized for their cars? Now this isn't a guarantee yet, and you cant order anything yet so dont start jumping to conclusions or anything, i just want to see if people would be interested and if there are enough people then im sure i could defidently pull something off.

Here are some telescope parts that he anodized so I can show you how they look:

http://www.focuser.com/products/focusers/crayfords/reflector/cr/cr-category.jpg

These are older parts from when he first started anodizing, all of his colors now have more color in them.. (if that makes sence?) which kinda means they are better looking, the quality really went up. Either way the ones that are shown above are really good looking, just more depth in the color you could say.

But yes, if you were interested in having some parts anodized let me know. I dont know anything of a price range because im just trying to see how many people would be interested. I think it's a really good idea, and either way.. i get all my parts anodized for free :iceslolan hehe.

it's definitely cool, but i think ultimately after 2 shipping charges, labor, and profit, it's going to be too costly for most people.

I think you have a good idea, though, of getting in touch with 3sx directly and possibly having them (or another 3/s site) offer it directly on their website. That would make your boss happy by giving him the quantities to make some decent money, while probably reducing the final cost.

how does anodizing actually work? is it like a bath?

it's definitely cool, but i think ultimately after 2 shipping charges, labor, and profit, it's going to be too costly for most people.

I think you have a good idea, though, of getting in touch with 3sx directly and possibly having them (or another 3/s site) offer it directly on their website. That would make your boss happy by giving him the quantities to make some decent money, while probably reducing the final cost.

how does anodizing actually work? is it like a bath?


like a bath? eh in a sence I guess you could say that since you have to dip them in three different tanks until the project is complete. i cant give you the 100% professional answer, but i can give you what i know about it.

first off, you need to stick it in a tank that clenses the aluminum, getting all of the junk and what not off and out of it.

second, in the aluminum, there is something in it that holds back being able to put color into it. in order to dye it, you have to put it in a tank that is hooked up to electricity for about an hour to get all of the electrodes (i think) out of the aluminum. once you have that ready it's able to hold color.

then you take your aluminum and put it in the color tank that you perfer for about 15 minutes, (all of the chemicals in the tanks is what works the magic) and the parts come out looking like it was made that way. now the whole outside piece of the aluminum is dyed and maybe like 2mm into the aluminum. if the aluminum was scratched it would take the color out of it, but that's almost like anything that is dyed. so i guess you could say it is like a bath, but three of them.

yeah, shipping everything twice would probably start to be a little expenisve but if someone really wanted the parts anodized im sure they would pay the price. and he doesn't charge outrageous prices for the anodizing because it is a simple process that takes about 2 hours.